Comments for Matchmaker Marketing Trick Irish Businesses - Beware! at http://www.business-startup.ie , comment 1 to 26 out of 20 comments http://www.business-startup.ie Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:07:03 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-520 I wrote the original piece above and still hear to this day about people being caught by companies like Matchmaker. When Google take their Google adwords accreditation away they just set up as another name and do it all over again. In my old company I was advising people to go to the garda/police and make a statement of complaint about them. If they have enough complaints compiled they can do something about it. A tv programme like Watchdog would be helpful - there was an Irish version thinking of doing something but not enough people would admit to being scammed for it to run. At least forums like this keep going and getting on the first page of Google naturally because their scam is so prevalent. Feel free to email me at my new email address if I can be any help. - Sian Phillip Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:55:50 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-493 Did this ever get resolved? - Henry Armitage Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:50:50 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-488 BT Business, Yell, Infoserve, Portfolio Europe and ReachLocal are in the UK and are just as bad a matchmaker ( who are In Liquidation now.) BT customer street are complete liars and are causing far more damage that matchmaker ever did. What's worse is Google know all of this and do nothing about it. As for Yell and Reach Local these are two of the worst media companies in the market. The fact is Google PPC doesn't work for 80% of its users. Google Adwords is the biggest scam of all time. Your readers should take a long hard look at what they are doing on the net. Most of them will realise that they aren't making any money at all. In fact worse than that they are throwing away their marketing budget on Google. Start talking to each other and ask the question does it even work? Stop beleiving in it and start questioning it. WAKE UP. - Jlaw Sun, 06 Mar 2011 10:25:07 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-484 hello had a call, very pushy, should have realised the second he was saying i needed to pay straight away, made alsorts of claims which they couldnt do, so they then called me today to offer me something else, and i must say he did laugh a couple of times down the phone, when i asked questions like your not going to automatically charge me each month are you, and this is a one off cost isnt it? I must have been mad to part with my money, anyway Ive notified the bank so they cant take any further funds out, and ive emailed them (not that i expect to get a refund) and said that i do not want there revised service offer. They are calling themselves PRECISION MEDIA now, what a joke, i cant believe the fraud office or police cant catch up with them, although i expect the big wigs involved arent sat there waiting in their manchester office, for them to turn up either. I must say some of the stuff he came out rings true to the above, guaranteed page 1 ranking, even pointed me to a website, ive just checked it now at 5am because i thought when i was looking i didnt see there name at the bottom of the website, and they usually have a disclaimer or something to say that the website was created by xxxx. Anyway perhaps another thing to be mindful of, if anyone gets a call. Thankfully i can continue with my new website above, what a nightmare, all i wanted was a means to load up a product catalogue to allow people to buy in confidence. - debbie Fri, 04 Mar 2011 04:44:27 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-444 This company must have been doing all this things for a long time now and they must have a lot of victims upto this days. Golly! I have not known this thing until I stop by your posts. Its good you shared it to us so we will be more keen to this stuff in the future. I myself cant help believing that getting the #1 spot in Google is easy with the help of companies. I should be keen now in accepting offers from other countries. Spammers are really out there trying to catch the most out of our wallet. - Clark Hetherington Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:29:39 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-439 I worked on the Keyworld Media / kwmuk / precision media sales team for about 5 weeks they are scammers avoid the scam your pressured to hit target and rip people off scam them whatever it takes to get the kwmuk scam figures on the board! I needed an income I regret working there but please spread the word that matchmaker marketing are just kwmuk ltd kwm precision media now. They are horrible people Google should stop them! - Sales Man Sat, 08 Jan 2011 11:09:07 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-396 I've had a call from Dot com chrome/ Precision Media recently, I had one not too long ago from Keyworld Media who I have now found out are KWMUK !. Are they the same scam company KWMUK & Dot com chrome/ Precision Media ? I know a little about internet sponsored links but the KWMUK offer sounded OK? I was just wondering if they are the same scam company that should be avoided ? Any one know if they are scammers? If some one could help clear up the issue or shed some further light on it? I have had a few missed calls from KWMUK I don't want to be scammed :( :sigh - M. Downsend Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:35:41 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-269 recurring payment scam from match maker marketing they agreed to the term remapping for the whole of the uk for 90 per month then charged me 250 on a recurring payment i had to call credit card company and told to them to cancel as it was a con the term they had actually given me was remapping uk completely piontless and not what they had said twats - lee Wed, 03 Nov 2010 19:26:28 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-102 I'm based in Cork, Ireland, I got caught too, Apex media. They even had the nerve to threaten me with a debt collector and even charge me euro200 extra interest for the payments I charged back. I had emailed and called the Apex office, in Altrincham, on numerous occasions to get to the bottom of this and sort it out since they were taking money from my account each month, triple what was agreed upon. I felt so foolish for haven being conned. Each time I rang it was a different excuse. But at least I got some of the money back. But receiving their letter which theratened a debt collector made me so angry. It's incredible how low these scamming scumbags will stoop to screw people out of their money. - Philip Bourke Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:14:44 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-101 Ns sommes une petite maison d'hôte en france et venons faire l'objet de démarches commerciales très agressives et efficaces, ns avons payé les 120€ du premier mois avec comme ils disent possibilité d'annuler à tout moment, mais il semble que bon nombre de personnes comme nous se sont vues débitées d'autres sommes les mois suivants. - Alan LOPEZ Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:49:19 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-84 Just had a similar experience today and am sorry to say fell for their amazing promises! Especially as we are desperate to get a website going and have been let down already on this. Got wary when I downloaded their invoice to us - very basic and unprofessional, so did a quick search and found this site. Will try to cancel agreement on Monday but from reading all above comments it doesn't look likely. Has anyone actually managed to get their money back? What about the 28 day cooling off period? - Carol Rose Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:54:22 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-83 I too was given the hard agresive sales and provided my credit card details on various conditions, which were never met. I immediately phoned them the next day to say that I was not interested and did not want my credit card charged, but they did so anyway. Each time I telephone them, they always agree to a refund but never do. I am in the process of getting HSBC to claw the money back but this is easier said than done. I may have to go to the small claims court but this costs time and money, plus they would probably never show up. I think this is a case for BBC Watchdog. Anyone who has got the time to organise a joint campaign, please count me in. - John Elliott Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:45:38 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-82 Hi there - I got a call from these guys today and after getting off the phone with them I was so shaken up, and downright furious, that it really took me some time to pull myself together again! Now that my senses have come back to me, I am driven to write on as many forums to get the word out there that these people are running a complete scam. I took an interest at first, of course, especially since we are currently optimising our new eco friendly, cheap printing site, but after giving me a GUARANTEE that I would be number one in the sponsored listings EVERY DAY for a month for £99 for premium keywords, I felt a bit uneasy. I said I would need to talk this over with my business manager, and the man turned into the devil, literally telling me I 'didn't have the balls to make a business decision', that I didn't know how to run a business, and that he would find someone else in my business sector to take the 'ONLY' place they had for printers in London (please). We all know this can't possibly be true, but what about fair trade? I am going to the OFT... I think others should join me. This kind of business practice is unacceptable and completely unethical. They are targeting small business owners with little money as it is and trying to steal (yes, steal!) their money from them, selling them nothing but lies. And what about Google? Why haven't they done anything about it yet? I find the whole thing shocking. Would love to hear other stories. I'm going all the way with this one! - Eco Friendly Cheap Printing Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:05:39 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-79 Further to the article I wrote back in May 2009 I still hear about Matchmaker Marketing (aka Apex Media, Sphere, Zenith, Storm Media) nearly every week. They've even phoned me a couple of times and their sales spiel is still the same as it was back last May. It is unbelievable that they are still allowed to trade and get away with their scam. You can see updated information about them and their aliases on my blog - http://www.whatswhat.ie/blog/category/matchmaker-marketing/ which I try to keep updated. You will find further links on there to other blogs and articles which show all the different aliases and tricks that they use. All we can do is keep writing these and spreading the word I guess as Google don't seem to be doing any more about them no matter how many times I email people's complaints. Tell everyone you know about these articles so no colleagues or friends of yours get caught. Thanks Sian http://www.whatswhat.ie sian@whatswhat.ie - Sian Phillips Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:39:26 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-53 i used towork for this company, and they suck you in saying you will earn £1000 per week, payed weekly and all you need to do is sell this 'fantasic product' we are the only resellers of google, give you hardcore training to be arrogant on the phone. pressure sales customer says i do not want this product!! 'WHY, GIVE YOUR HEAD A WOBBLE, CANT YOU SEE ITS GOOGLE YOU HAVE TO BE ON GOOGLE. IS THAT FAIR ENOUGH' GIVEV IT A GO. I QUOTE 'he feels gutted as he thought it was a big break into sales to earn some money before he went traveling, there paying 17,000 p.a, but what he didt no for every day you dont get a sale your fined £50 out of your wage EVEN IF YOU MEET THERE WEEKLY TARGET' this is true, they have to fine a certain amount on a daily basis. if you blank for 3 days you get sacked..... SCAM BEWARE!!!!!!!!! - witheld Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:31:30 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-50 Same approach and deal then they tried to get us to change / re-tailor packages but by then I had been at an internet seminar with East Cork Tourism where we were told that there is no way they could deliver what they promised. Next came a call ofering to get us listed on Google Adwords - I asked why when I could do it myself at which point they got extremely abusive and hung up. I later cancelled all proceedings only to receive a customer service call yesterday. When asked for credit card details I declined to give them but this morning they charged 230EUR to my card - obviously having held card info on file - Illegal! I've contacted the bank who may be able to salvage the transaction but will probably have to cancel my business card and have it re-issued. - Us Too - Aquatrek Sea Skills Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:21:25 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-49 We are a Company in the Uk who took out a one-month trial with Matchmaker Marketing last summer and had a terrible experience which we still haven't had resolved. It started first with 'We are calling from Google', then 'On behalf of Google' and then they assured us that they were authorised Google Adwords Resellers (which is not true as only BT Business, Yell, Infoserve, Portfolio Europe and ReachLocal are in the UK); so completely mis-selling their service. Some may say that this was our fault for not making the necessary checks, but it is not always easy for small 'hands-on' businesses to do so (a hard way to learn a lesson). The trial itself was unsuccessful and so we wrote to Matchmaker stating that we were cancelling our campaign with them. Taking into account a 30 days notice period, since what should have been our last bill they made a further 4 unauthorised debit card transactions. It is easy to say that this should have been picked up on the 1st unauthorised transaction, but i reiterate my point above; it is not easy to keep track of every transaction and is yet another lesson hard learned. When we contacted them they admitted to having our letter of cancellation and that these payments should not have been taken. However, we are still to receive our monies back and are still waiting for contact from anyone in a position of authority within the Matchmaker Marekting organisation. We have had to block our debit card and our Bank have now taken over in recovering the monies. Under no circumstances should anybody have any dealings with Matchmaker Marketing - they are nothing but debit/credit card thieving scammers in my opinion. - laura smith Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:54:21 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-48 As at least one other person has said, Matchmaker Marketing are also canvassing in France. I am a freelance translator based in France. Matchmaker Marketing targeted me. Matchmaker Marketing phoned me in the spring of this year (2009). They asked me to Google them while on the phone, and then said that, in return for a lump sum registration fee (around 150 euros) they could enable me to appear on the first page of a Google search if people searched for a few keywords. I was a bit wary, but I'm sorry to admit I fell for their bait, and I paid the lump sum. They sent me a "Matchmaker Web Brief" - a file/form to fill in with details of my job and a brief CV, etc. I filled it in and returned it to them this summer. As far as I remember, Matchmaker Marketing did *not* mention that they were affiliated to Google as such. However, the worst thing is that they have not provided any service at all, and they have not replied to any of my e-mails or phone calls since sending them my Web Brief. Perhaps they will claim that they have simply delayed in providing the service, and that this does not constitute a scam or fraud?... Here is their e-mail address: WebTeam@matchmakermarketing.co.uk Their phone No. in England is/was 0161 941 7644 - Peter McCavana Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:13:17 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-47 Cette société m'a contacter aujourdhui.Ils prospectent également en france.Et l appel provenait bien d angleterre. - Franck Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:23:02 +0100 http://www.business-startup.ie/general/matchmaker-marketing-trick-irish-businesses-beware.html#comment-43 They were trying to sell me the keywords "wedding photographer in swansea" at first they insisted that it would be an organic link on the first page! as I know a bit about search engine optimisation I knew this was lies! then the next day they called back and apologised and when pushed admitted it was adwords they were using! I know for the 5 key phrases we are targeting for our website that the CPC is quite low so we can manage that ourselves. I then asked if they would be able to do the same deal for my other business and online shop in which the keywords and phrases are much higher CPC. They promised they can do this as a first page adword listing within 48 hrs. I now gather from reading up on this that its not a 24/7 advert on the front page, but just for certain hours!! and that seems to be the catch! - Karl Baker Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:06:37 +0100